...And Back?

Three muton elites rushed from the far end while Goose was exposed in the middle of the balcony. All walls had been reduced to rubble and dust in the fierce exchange between the squad and the sectoids and Goose took a glancing blow from one of the mutons' plasma rifles. He hit the deck on top of Hipster and felt a loud crack.

[TACTICAL COMMS TRANSCRIPTION]

44: Nailed two.

Broden: Nailed the last one.

Goose: I...I think Hipster is dead.

[TRANSCRIPTION ENDS]

Hipster was gone. He had been bleeding quite openly for a short while and all the combat literally on top of him sped up his expiration. Goose swallowed hard, closed Hipster's fixed eyes that were staring at the stars somewhere far away and continued along the hangar. Radio was mostly silent, but based on the ambient grunts and pants it was evident that the squad was in terrible shape. Harmony Lad's breathing was hissing and scratching like a broken record and Goose suspected he was running on fumes. Better hurry.

The squad arrived at another set of corridors and control rooms, after which the ship corridor opened into a big, symmetrical hall. 44 told that the voices were getting louder, so this had to be the correct direction and possibly what XCOM was looking for. There were elevated balconies on both sides, so the team split in half, with snipers on both sides and ascended to the balcony. Ironside, badly wounded, leaned to his alloy gun in the middle and descended a small slope to lean against a large structure. He closed his eyes and was partially drifting away, when he came back to his senses on loud noises and an unpleasant buzz in his head. Ethereals had arrived.

Harmony Lad was so exhausted that he ould concetrate only on one thing; the one that required him the least effort. Shooting the plasma sniper rifle. He shot the closest ethereal on his side down, and drew a couple of deep breaths while he could not see anything else. He was too tired to move even a meter and this was after all a good vantage point.

44 exerted all his will at the ethereal on his side. There was one more ethereal further down at the pedestal near its own orb-like device, but this had to do for now. 44 felt the ethereal gave way to him as he thrusted himself inside its mind and all of a sudden saw new things. Two muton elites on the platform just above Ironside. He started to ready his sniper rifle.

[TACTICAL COMMS TRANSCRIPTION]

44: Damn it, there are muton elites as well. This is going to get bloody.

Goose: Get?

Ironside: I'll even the odds.

[TRANSCRIPTION ENDS]

Ironside, knowing there's not much left on the tank kicked himself into motion on 44's remark. He rushed up the slope onto the platform straight below the ethereal and hugged the corner. Then he let go with his alloy gun, but his wounds were already taking their toll. He hit with the first one, but the second shot trailed harmlessly past the muton's head and Ironside knew this was the final destination for him. Before, he had stood up to near-mortal wounds and taken unearthly amounts of beating, but now he felt he's becoming the passenger. The muton elite shot at him from point blank range and he could see himself falling down to the floor. He was now watching this bloodbath from above.

Goose made a gesture towards the other muton, which then grabbed its head and collapsed in a heap. On their vantage points, Harmony Lad and 44 were back at their most familiar business: peppering the far ethereal with sniper fire. It was buried on a salvo of plasma bolts and now there was only one ethereal left in 44's control. It was clinging to his mind like a flypaper for a while, but then he could feel it going away.

[TACTICAL COMMS TRANSCRIPTION]

44: I think it's getting loose, stay frosty!

Broden: Aiming at it, point blank.

[TRANSCRIPTION ENDS]

The ethereal disappeared from 44's mind, but instead of wreaking havoc, it simply collapsed, after which the ethereal device at the far pedestal started to resonate and tremble violently. 44 felt it gaining power and all of a sudden all of his consciousness was screaming that he should get out of here. Not from this ship, but from Earth. The ship started to rock and some structures were starting to give way.

[TACTICAL COMMS TRANSCRIPTION]

Harmony Lad: Jason come on, we have to go!

Broden: Hurry, this thing is going to blow!

44: No.

[TRANSCRIPTION ENDS]

44 understood that this was going to be a one-way trip, and that it was up to him to decide is it a one-way trip for himself, the remaining four, or six billion. He exerted a thought in his mind and so Broden and Harmony Lad were flying through the corridor and through the doorway, which 44 then locked off. He knew, that the device was going to explode, and upon detonation it would release so much energy, that there would be no Earth to save. He reached deeper into his mind to find the control system for the temple ship and commanded it to thrust skyward as hard as possible. Slowly, the gigantic ship started to rise.

[XCOM CENTRAL TRANSCRIPTION]

Radar Operator: The temple ship is moving, sir!

Central: To?

RO: Um...yes it's moving. Up.

Pilot: Skyranger calling Central, Central come in.

Central: This is Central.

Pilot: Evac underway, we're soon home. The ship started rising to the sky.

Central: Is 44 with you?

Pilot: Negative, sir. I have only Harmony Lad, Broden and Goose.

Central: *silence* Ok, head home safely.

[TRANSCRIPTION ENDS]

The ship skyrocketed through the atmosphere, out to the space and finally detonated there. Chunks of debris scattered the skies and fell back to Earth on a monumental display of shooting stars. Back at the Central, the commander checked his watch. It was almost the war anniversary, but not quite. 5:19 PM on the 23th February, 2016. Tomorrow, there would be no need for an alarm. Hopefully.